Happy Clams on the Half-Shell Day!

And I hear soft shell crab season has just begun!

Clams in all their glory...

Chelsea

Any Bets on What Will Be the Last Dish Served at elBulli?

As New Ambassador of Spanish Tourism, Ferran Adrià Dishes elBulli

27th Street and 10th Avenue

Trip to the West Village didn't end up producing a lot of pictures, as the theater didn't allow photography (thought wrongly that interactive theater in a space the size of three buildings and containing 5 interactive floors might allow).

But I can include the link here of the show we went to see: very interesting!

U.K.'s Punchdrunk presents Sleep No More

Ferran Adrià Shares "Spirit" of elBulli in New York

Ferran Adrià spoke twice in Manhattan yesterday about the dwindling hours of elBulli and the phoenix scheduled to rise in its place in 2014, that is, the as yet not-wholly-definable elBulli foundation. Accompanying him was writer Lisa Abend (Time Magazine), invited to discuss her new book about a yeoman's life in most famous kitchen in Roses, Spain, The Sorcerer's Apprentice: A Season in the Kitchen at Ferran Adria's ElBulli. Watch the video below if you'd like to familiarize yourself with Ferran Adrià and his restaurant.

Ferran was joined at the Juan Carlos I of Spain Center at NYU by Spain's minister of Industry, Tourism and Commerce, Miguel Sebastián. The iconic chef has just been named Spain's Tourism Ambassador, and Sebastián shared his vision of a sunny future for tourism in Spain, whose visitors last year outnumbered residents, and which came in third among most visited countries, following France and the United States. The tourism minister revealed two new slogans touting Spain's total package: "Made for/by Spain" and "I Need Spain", both of which can only hope to go down in Spanish pop history as the latest in a long line of kitschy national promo slogans: such as Made in Spain and the beloved, though much riffed-upon Spain is Different (other iffy anglicized Spanish slogans include Madrid's PR bid for the 2016 Olympic games: "I Feel it in My Bones").

Author Abend, whose book on the elBulli apprentice experience was released Tuesday, began her short presentation by detailing her first encounter, on her way to interview Adrià, with two regimented lines of blue-aproned stagiers (which she defines as the technical name for kitchen slave), plucking pine nuts from sappy green pine cones in the kitchen of elBulli. After an hour's interview, she passed back through the kitchen, where the same bent heads, seemingly fixed in place, continued to form two parallel lines over still more sticky green pines cones.

As it turned out, the pine nuts would be used in that season's (elBulli only remains open for 6 months each year, and so each half-year is referred to as a "season") take on risotto, a dish that each year comes with a different component. This year that component was pine nuts, meaning that the "risotto"consisted of the seed of the pine tree, instead of rice (another year it was made with cucumber seeds, yet another it was made with the small seed inside a kernel of raw corn-- to the collective agonized groans of many a stagier). Abend went on with a little math: enough pine nut risotto to fill a small bowl, times 50 servings (elBulli famously only served 50 guests per night; the restaurant is closed for lunch)…equals mucho trabajo.

Luckily for those who have been able to attend one of the 140 "concerts" (dinner at elBulli, according to Adrià) given each season, elBulli currently counts with about 35 unpaid volunteers (up from the much smaller number in the early 1990s, when Abend's book contends that Adrià once begged people on the street to come and work for him). Abden pointed out that the tedium is not for everybody. Even though 3000 applicants fight, borrow, beg, and steal (or at least lie about their Spanish language aptitude) for a spot in Ferran's kitchen each year, not everyone walks away glad—although many do use elBulli as a stepping stone to great success and even fame, apparently some do just walk away at the end of their 6-month stint.

Later that afternoon, after a reception flowing with Rioja wine and cava at NYU, the Astor Center hosted Adrià and Abend et al in a more intimate panel discussion. The panel included former elBulli stagier and brand-new restaurateur Katie Button, who's just opened her own tapas place, called Cúrate ("feel better", or "heal", in Spanish) in Ashville, North Carolina. The Adrià brothers' faithful interpreter was in attendance, and as usual, mostly stuck to translating for the audience's benefit, since Adrià seems to have a pretty strong ear for English (but is a perfect clam when it comes to speaking it).

Watch the video for a brief discussion of the creative process at elBulli, and a mention of a new documentary on the topic, due for release this summer.



Adrià made several references to the spirit of elBulli, so that it nearly began to materialize in the room. In sum, the spirit seems to translate to generosity in all things, but especially in the minute sharing of information about the elBulli system and methodology. A video detailed plans for the new research and learning center, which appears to have benefited mucho from its collaboration with Spanish telecomm giant Telefónica; in short, it's an architectural knockout. Several allusions were made throughout the day to the University of Harvard, where Adrià often gives lectures, and whose leadership in academics he perhaps looks to as a model for his own foundation.

07 ideario from Cloud 9 on Vimeo.

Generosity also sums up the spirit of the next elBulli book, The ElBulli Family Meal, to be published in October 2011. "The family meal" is what a kitchen "brigade" calls the daily staff meal, and the book of the same name will feature 31 menus tried and tested in the elBulli kitchen by the lucky staff of about 45. Each menu is designed to provide tasty, top-notch, simple cuisine (Adrià insists that each menu can be prepared within one hour), and to meet a price-point of about $10 per 2-person pop, since Adrià points out that most households just house two. $10 doesn't seem so bad for two people to share a three-course meal, and as the most important chef of our time says, it was sometimes difficult to shop within the set guidelines (the task of shopping on a 6 euro budget was given to a stagier each day). As a result, even though he'd love to be able to throw himself behind the organic movement, when most people in Spain earn a monthly salary of 1500 euro, he says he can't afford to, with a very characteristic shrug.

The talk also lighted on some interesting topics presented by Adrià: for example, how can one maintain a high level of creativity and at the same time just be happy? He thinks he's found the answer in the new low-maintenance Tickets, the tapas bar he's just opened with brother Albert, in Barcelona. Anyone got an extra plan ticket lying around?

Bye, Chinatown!

Next week: West Village!

Anything at this price is probably a good buy.

Ginger! Per Wiki, they crush it with sap from mango trees to make tangawisi juice in Congo, where it's considered a cure-all. In Indonesia, it cures "winds in the blood", "poor dietary habits", and fatigue. It's sold over the counter in the US as a dietary supplement thought to mitigate motion sickness. I at least suffer from more than one of these ailments, so this weekend appears bound to include an attempt at ginger soda, if not some gingersnaps. 

By the way, speculoos, or speculaas, is a German cookie very similar to a gingersnap, and I've recently seen it on menus in Chicago, Houston, and at a Brooklyn coffee shop (thus branding it indelibly as a trend). So what's the deal? The ingredients, texture and flavor are pretty identical to gingersnaps (click on the link to see a picture: speculoos or Ginger Snap?)


[answer: speculoos!]

Is this savvy marketing or an unfettered embrace of flavors from afar? And how did the trend get started? Is it because people want to savor the unknown? Perhaps in this case, menu marketing is a positive reflection of an open-minded populace. If so, at what point will Nabisco start producing speculoos cookies?

Chinese Lottery on Eldridge Street

Eldridge Street

Eldridge Street at Manhattan Bridge

There's plenty of elbow room in southeast Chinatown.

A) An East Village Bike Cozy

B) A knitted security system
C) My friend Liz in Greenpoint probably actually knows exactly what its purpose is.
D) Art, right? Great!

The Chrysler Building!

The world's tallest building for 11 months in 1931, before it was replaced by the upstart Empire State Building. Adventure of the day included Photoshop 101, gracias a Alvaro.

Linzer tarts just sitting there in the window, being cheerful

Andre's Cafe, Yorktown, Upper East Side

Chorizo-Potato-Grelos

Red Snapper, Beguiling Eye (Dinner Last Night)

Meet dinner last night, a super-fox of a red snapper I picked up at the market (Anthony Bourdain writes that he does his shopping there, but we've never bumped into each other). They had some crazy fish there yesterday, even though it's hard to find good fish and shellfish (there or anywhere in New York City). It seems that razor clams in Manhattan are sold dead as a rule of thumb, and the ones at this market too, look peaceful and languid in their afterlives.  I saw some in bowls once at a bar in Sevilla popping out of their shells, snapping their fingers and rolling their hips: really a feat for a mollusk. It was right off the Plaza de Hercules, if you ever go. 

One time I bought a live lobster at this market whose flavor was pretty intensely infused with tank water. Another time I bought oysters, and ended up stabbing myself while shucking a Kumamoto. The market isn't to blame for that, though. 

But the fish yesterday was really impressive, and the black sheen of this red snapper's eye netted me. So I picked it up and cradled it all the way home, with its big, flappy pink tail, and took a picture of it (above), (artfully) next to some lemon.

Most of an episode of "Storage Wars" later...

And this is what it looked like after spending 40 minutes in an oven at 450 degrees. My boyfriend said it could have used about 5 minutes less. But it was 2 and a half pounds! He was right, though. But it was still flaky and delicious. We scooped out the cheeks and ate them over the stove. I was tempted to eat the eye, knowing that Anthony Bourdain probably would have or has (in Japan, if memory serves). But my boyfriend wouldn't dare me to.